Chemistry Letters, Vol.35, No.2, 232-233, 2006
Importance of 3'-hydroxyl group of the nucleosides for the reactivity of thymidine phosphorylase from Escherichia coli
Thymidine phosphorylase in phosphate buffer catalyzed the conversion of thymidine to unnatural nucleosides. The 3'-OH, but not the 5'-OH of ribosyl moiety is necessary to be recognized as a substrate. Thus 3-deoxythymidine could not convert to 5-fluorouracil-2,3'-dideoxyribose. However, 5-deoxythymidine was converted to 5-fluorouracil-2',5'-dideoxyribose.